DRAGON INC. team hosting 24-hour poetry marathon fundraiser event!

Cleveland, Ohio's DRAGON INC. is having a 24-hour poetry marathon event at Phoenix Coffee on West 9th Street in downtown Cleveland, starting at 8:00 PM this Friday! This is a fundraiser event, raising money to help Cleveland's National Poetry Slam team get to Boston. Anyone can feature! Time on the mic is just $1 per minute, with a minimum of 10 minutes.

The event will be broadcast on Ustream, so poets performing here will be seen and heard by folks all over the planet (and possibly beyond). There will also be a big screen and computer set up so that poets not able to attend the show in person can perform live via Skype!

Performers of all types are welcome. If you would like to play music*, stage a play, or do an interpretive dance, time is available. (* Due to licensing restrictions, music performed must be original or in public domain.)

To reserve a time-slot, contact AKeem Jamal Rollins (Dragon Inc.'s coach). (There's a contact form on the Dragon Inc. website, if you are unable to contact AKeem via Facebook.)

http://www.DragonIncSlam.com

Event page on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=120150718079534


(Huge thanks and apologies to Scott Woods for allowing us to steal his fundraising idea.)

(And because I know someone will ask, I am assisting the Dragon Inc. team at this event, being their tech-guy. This is not a Poet's Haven event.)

I've been interviewed!

Check it out, Tanisha Herrin interviewed me for the Akron Poetry Examiner:
http://www.examiner.com/poetry-in-akron/interview-with-vertigo-xi-an-xavier-and-the-poet-s-haven

:-)

New Chapbooks

More that I keep forgetting to post here on the blog: The Poet's Haven released two new chapbooks this month!

Andrew Tobias Line's "Street Corner Poetry" launched on June 10th at his Deep Cleveland feature!

Jeff Kosiba's "Seasons of Discontent: Spring & Summer" was released at the June 18th Saturday Night With The Poet's Haven event in Cleveland!

Andrew's book was rushed to print as he is part of Cleveland's Dragon Inc. slam team and will be doing some heavy promotion and fund-raising leading up to the team's trip to National Poetry Slam.  We now resume our normal bimonthly release schedule.  :-)

These books can be purchased at several independent bookstores around north-east Ohio (and if you are interested in carrying Poet's Haven chapbooks at your retail establishment, dealer inquiries are welcome), purchased at any live Poet's Haven event, or ordered online.

July First Friday - CHALK THE WALK & POETRY TO THE PEOPLE

It's time for Canton First Friday's CHALK THE WALK event, and this year we're taking part in a big way!  We will again be assembling a street team to cover the walkways with short poems, and we also want poem submissions for the street team to use!

For info on submitting poems:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=166382496761460

For info on joining our street team:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=185174014869063

Then, we're taking a month off from the normal open-mic and slam event and instead bringing POETRY TO THE PEOPLE!  Poets will be performing all over the downtown arts district, out amid the crowd of people!  The goal is to let folks who wouldn't normally come to a poetry event hear how awesome performance poetry is (and hopefully get some of those people to check out some poetry events in the future).  Poetry performances will start at 6:00, and will conclude with members of DRAGON INC. (who will be sending Cleveland's team to National Poetry Slam) performing on "THE POET'S HAVEN STAGE" (YES!) from 9:00 to 10:00!

Here's the schedule of performing poets:

• 6:00 - BEN BARTMAN - at the Rubber Duckie (corner of 5th and Cleveland Ave.)
• 6:20 - HERE BE DRAGONS (Jennifer Cline & John Cezanne) - at 4th and Cleveland (across from the Buzzbin Stage)
• 7:00 - CHRISTINA BROOKS - outside Second April Gallerie (324 Cleveland Ave.)
• 7:20 - STEVE BRIGHTMAN - at the Rhino (corner of 4th and Cleveland Ave.)
• 7:40 - CARLA THOMPSON & JACOB KING - at the Shutterbug (the mosquito, corner of 5th and Cleveland Ave.)
• 8:20 - ARIJA LEE - outside Arcadia Grill (Court Ave., the parking lot behind Second April)
• 8:40 - KONKRETE ROSE - at the Saxophone (corner of 3rd and Market Ave.)
• 9:00 - DRAGON INC. (with AKeem Rollins, Andrew Line, Caira Lee) - The Poet's Haven Stage (at 3rd and Court Ave.)

The locations are subject to some tweaking.  I'll have the most up-to-date schedule posted at Citizen X during the event.

I hope to see everyone there!

"Getting There" by Jacob King

I'm falling into a trap of not updating this blog.  I seem to post status updates on Facebook when I have something to announce, but forget to come over here and post it.

The first book in The Poet's Haven Chapbook Series was released last month!  "Getting There" by Jacob King can be picked up at Backlist Books in Massillon, the Citizen X / BRsquare offices in Canton, Mac's Backs Books on Coventry in Cleveland Heights, and Visible Voice Books in Tremont!  You can also get a copy from me at any Poet's Haven event or any other poetry event you see me at.  For those not located in the north-east Ohio area, you can also order a copy online from The Poet's Haven.

Galleries OPEN to submissions...

I know I never posted a follow-up about the server move, but FYI: everything's moved and the galleries are open to submissions.  Just in case you were wondering...

Galleries Closed to Submissions During Server Move

While the big changes I'd hope to complete in time for the server move are not complete, the move has to happen now.  (Otherwise, I have to pay for another year at the old server, which I'd really rather not have to do.)  The PoetsHaven.com galleries will be closed to submissions while the move is completed.  The galleries will be open to submissions on the new server, however it may take up to 48 hours for everyone's ISPs to update their DNS info.  If you wish to submit work to the galleries and are not able to do so, please come back in a day or two.

(If I don't close the galleries on the old server and that's the version of the site you are seeing, your submissions will be lost.  This way, no submissions get lost during the transition from the old server to the new.)

Good things are in store at the new server.  I am promised unlimited (within reason) bandwidth, and as such will be able to do things like hour-long podcast episodes (instead of half-hour episodes) and the upcoming ebook releases without worrying about data transfer limits.  I am also continuing to work on upgrades to the galleries, but what I am trying to do there has proven to be a major undertaking somewhat beyond my self-taught PHP programming skills.  It'll get done someday, I just have to figure out how to get certain functions to work the way I want.

Vertigo guest emcee at Snoetry - 1 AM to 5 AM Saturday night / Sunday morning

As the subject says, I will be guest emcee at Snoetry in Elyria, OH from 1 AM to 5 AM Saturday night / Sunday morning.  If you haven't heard, Snoetry is a 150-hour poetry reading staged by John Burroughs and Dianne Borsenik that's set to claim the world record for longest poetry event in modern times.  The event is happening NOW, and can be viewed live at Ustream!

So, I have four hours to fill and some nifty technology that allows me to hook my cell phone up to the event's sound equipment.  Anyone want to read by phone?  Send me an e-mail or a private message if you're interested.  Let me know how long you would like to read for (15 to 30 minutes), who you are if I don't already know you, and what your phone number is.  I'll put a schedule together and let you know what time to expect the call.  :-)

SHARE THIS! How to get around the internet block in #Egypt

Listening to NPR earlier today, they were talking about how "tech savvy" protesters were finding ways to get around the internet shut-down in Egypt.  Their story mostly focused on folks breaking out the old dial-up modems and connecting to dial-up ISPs in other countries, but they also described exactly how the Egyptian ISPs had shut down access to the world wide web.  It seems that the ISPs simply removed all the entries from their DNS servers.  When you connect to their ISP and type in an address, the DNS server tells your computer where that site is located.  Without a DNS entry for a site, your computer won't be able to find the site.  However, if your computer has an entry for that site in the HOSTS file, your computer will skip accessing the DNS server for that site and connect to the IP in the HOSTS entry.

Make sure your computer is set up to show hidden files.  Look for a file named HOSTS in either Windows\system32\drivers\etc or in the Windows root (for 98/ME users).  If you're using a *NIX or Macintosh OS, go to /etc/hosts.  Add entries for the sites you need to access, such as:

          69.63.189.26  facebook.com
          74.125.127.93  youtube.com
          74.125.95.93  google.com
          168.143.171.180  twitter.com
 

The above listed IPs work as of this posting.  The IPs for Google and Youtube should be interchangeable, as they are hosted on the same servers.

This trick is also useful for getting around campus or work-place firewalls on certain sites.  This is not guaranteed to work, as more advanced firewalls will block the whole IP range of certain sites, and in the case of what's happening in Egypt right now, the ISPs may completely shut-down or disconnect from the internet until the government lifts the ban.  However, as long as the shut-down is being done in the way described by NPR today, this method should work.

Also, if you're not trying to work around a block, do NOT add entries to your HOSTS file.  Sites such as these change their IP addresses somewhat frequently, and when they do your entry will no longer be valid.  This is why DNS servers are important, as they are updated every few hours with current data.  However, as these sites have made it clear they stand on the side of the protesters and against the Egyptian government's block, hopefully they will keep their current IP addresses until the crisis is over.

Random Musings...

I did some laundry when I got home tonight, and a thought struck me.  Why do I still match my socks into pairs when I don't wear them that way?

(For anyone who doesn't know, I have had some trouble with my left leg, and now wear a compression stocking.  While I do occasionally wear compression stockings on both legs, I usually wear a normal sock on my right foot.)

Is this just a course of habit that I've yet to break away from?  A built-in reflex that will never change?

Someone I know who is a landscaper once told me about a job he took.  He did some planting and whatnot and installed those little lights along the sidewalk.  The thing was, the man who lived in the house was blind.  He could not figure out why the blind man would want lights along his sidewalk.  My first thought was that perhaps the client wasn't totally blind and could follow the lights to get to his door in the dark.  My second thought was that he wanted them there for guests, friends and relatives who would stop over regularly.  But tonight, another possibility crossed my mind.  Perhaps it was some sort of reflex action, wanting lights.  How long does it take someone who has lost their sight to stop reaching for the light switch?


On a lighter note, tonight I heard what has got to be the best bad pick-up line ever.  I've been listening to more country music of late, and had one of the bands named "Iron Horse" playing in my car.  (There are three bands named "Iron Horse" that I know of.  One is a Scottish Celtic band, one is a bluegrass band from Alabama that is best known for doing Metallica and Ozzy cover albums, and the last, the one I was listening to tonight, is a country/metal band from Columbus.)  The song "Bring It On" has the line "Baby if you wanna ride / I'll be your motorcycle."  LOL